by randyhyde » Sat Jul 18, 2015 7:32 pm
Okay, after a couple of hours playing with SAC v4.0, all I can say is the following:
1) Paying $100 for a program that doesn't work is a *big* problem for me.
1a) SAC crashes if you turn off a control surface or unplug a MIDI cable during operation.
1b) If you hook up three Mackie units to SAC, performance crawls to a dead stop. Don't try resizing a mixer window, it will take 3-5 seconds to redraw.
2) Don't know if this is also control-surface related, but trying to set up a latch locks up the system for a *loooong* time.
3) Desperately needs documentation update (e.g., how to hook up control surfaces; it was trial and error [mostly error] before I got the Mackies to work).
4) While 3.1 (and earlier) mix files will work with 4.0, 4.0 files will not work with earlier versions. So if you have a crash during a show and need to switch back to 3.1 to finish the gig, you get to redo your mixes. Not a good feeling when working with alpha-quality software (and make no mistake, v4.0 is alpha quality).
While I wholeheartedly believe Bob should charge for decent feature upgrades, he should have *working* code before he ships if he's going to charge money for it.
People are falling all over themselves at the other board about how great this is. Me, I'm feeling really ripped off now. Definitely motivating me to try out AMP (which arrived yesterday).
Cheers,
Randy Hyde